Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, and Grace Kelly, along with MGM, remake Red Dust (1932) with 1953’s Mogambo. Extensive location and studio shooting make for a steamy jungle picture about gorillas and messy human relationships. Robert Burns used traditional African music in place of the usual score, and John Ford directed with his usual blunt and grump, giving tension between him and Gable. The on-location shooting was arduous and with some danger, with Gable given an armed guard while in Kenya (Wikipedia). The word, Mogambo, is just a twist on Mocambo, which was a Hollywood nightclub that producer Sam Zimbalist came up with. I suppose he was a regular at the nightclub. John Ford was particularly rough on Ava Gardner because he wanted Maureen O’Hara instead. “Donald Sinden (and all male members of the crew who removed their shirts) had to shave any hair from their chests daily, as Clark Gable (who did not have a hairy chest) thought it an affront to his ‘manliness’ (Classic Movie Hub).

This Special Accessories supplement to the movie’s pressbook goes all out and is filled with enough monkey business (I know, I know, monkeys are not gorillas, but gorilla business sounds awful, so…) to dress up the theater inside and out. There’s also a nifty Color Mogambo Animals coloring mat, 16″x20″, that is a great newspaper or standalone activity.

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Mogambo (1953) Special Accessories
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The story of a “gentle-man” who was a cad, of an uncouth sheriff who was a “prince,” and of a girl who was taught by better adventure to know the truth (from the pressbook).

Based on the play of the same name, this “photoplay” was directed by Hugh Ford. Unfortunately, no prints of the film are known to exist. The movie’s pressbook, however, provides a lot of information and promotion. What’s really cool is the inclusion of the accessories ordering sheet and pricing sheet, which later pressbooks left out. Early movies were often based on stage plays and their pressbooks were often substantial (this one clocks in at twenty pages). One quickly gets the sense that, back then, given that the printed word was the media du jour, a lot of people read a lot. Unlike today, where we have a lot more multi-media to view, but less people actually reading. Another interesting tidbit is the mention of slides the theater can use for promotion. These magic lantern glass slides, 3.25 x 4 inches (cost .15 cents), would be shown before the main feature or in-between films, to provide a coming-attractions promotion. Today, of course, we have movie trailers, ad nauseum, to zing and pow us into ticket-buying submission.

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In Mizzoura (1919) PressbookRead More »

The glory days of television and movie westerns faded away by the late 1960s. Personally, I pin the start of their demise with the advent of sputnik in 1957. Its surprise entry into the consciousness and social bubble of the United States provided a dose of reality that westerns could no longer seek to hide. Don’t get me wrong: some of the most engaging and meaningful scripts came out of television cowboy dramas by writers like Gene Roddenberry and Samuel A. Peeples, notable for their Star Trek connections. It was Gene Roddenberry who pitched Star Trek: The Original Series as “Wagon Train to the stars,” referring to the television show Wagon Train, which he wrote for, and Peeples who came up with the “where no man has gone before” line.

But the complexity of life changed. Social issues, moral issues, sexual issues, political issues, religious issues, and technology issues, they all combined into a world that was a far cry from the simplicity of the westerns with their black and white bad guys, good guys, Indians, guns, and the wilderness. Some westerns, like Have Gun Will Travel, went the extra trail to write in more than the black and white, but given commercial-driven television, there was only so much the sponsors would allow. Of course, the more adult-slanted movies had no commercials, so great westerns like The Searchers, Stagecoach, High Noon, and the Spaghetti Westerns are wonderful exceptions to the breakfast cereal wholesomeness to explore. But there’s nothing wrong with a little wholesomeness, like Davy Crockett or The Lone Ranger too.

What drew me to this Davy Crockett, Indian Scout pressbook was the color-in illustration, which pretty much sums up the wild west in one fell war whoop. The exploitation, which includes the Indian Scout Matinee and Sitting Bull Waits for Davy, stunts is pure 1950s.

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Davy Crockett, Indian Scout (1950)Read More »

Skip Homeier (as Emil) plays a German boy indoctrinated in the Hitler Youth movement. He is sent to America to live with his uncle, in the hope he can be deprogrammed. First a successful stage play, where Homeier also played Emil, both play and movie are still relevant (even more so) today. Homeier had a long and busy acting career in both movies and television. He played a Nazi officer in the original Star Trek episode Patterns of Force, and a space hippie in the wildly odd ST episode This Way to Eden. And, as Svengoolie would reluctantly admit, he also appeared in Perry Mason episodes.

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Tomorrow the World! (1944) PressbookRead More »

Take One False Step is not a standout for noir crime movies, but it has William Powell (of Philo Vance and Nick Charles notoriety) and Shelley Winters. She is always etched in my mind after watching the 1975 episode of Johnny Carson where she dumped her drink over Oliver Reed’s head after his misogynistic comment to her. You didn’t diss Ms. Winters, who won academy awards and played her own woman in her strong Hollywood career. Her role as the ill-fated Willa in The Night of the Hunter (one of the best noir horrors directed by Charles Laughton, his only time as director), which leads to a chilling and surreal underwater scene of her dead body tied to a Ford Model T is classic and unforgettable. One wonders what other cinematic delicacies Laughton would have provided to the screen had he continued to direct.

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Take One False Step (1949)
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